


All About the Wizard Tokens

by spiralicious



Series: Dear Bob [5]
Category: Subeta (Game)
Genre: Community: allbingo, Community: story-works, Gen, Humor, Mystery, Spring Cleaning Challenge, Tarot Bingo Fest 2019, The High Priestess Card
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-31
Updated: 2019-05-31
Packaged: 2020-04-05 05:40:38
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,589
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19042246
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/spiralicious/pseuds/spiralicious
Summary: Krisaga sees a help wanted ad for someone needing help cleaning up their basement and just can't resist those Wizard Tokens.





	All About the Wizard Tokens

Krisaga raised her hand to knock on the door and stopped. She wasn't exactly reconsidering taking the job. Just a few things struck her as odd. The ad had seemed clear enough at the time, “Help Wanted: Need assistance for basement clear out. Two day job. Magical experience required. 10,000 Wizard Tokens.” Okay, the “magical experience required” bit did seem a bit odd, but it was Subeta. A fairly significant portion of the population were either magic users or at least collected magical artifacts. They needed special handling. And the woman on the phone had explained that it wasn't really a basement, but an overrun magic work space and the owner wasn't up to the task of cleaning it on their own. That all made sense. 

Things started to fall apart a bit when she realized the phone number had been an Arctic Frost prefix, but the address was in the middle of nowhere off of Veta Lake. The woman on the phone had also made it sound like the owner of said work space was infirm in some way, but the property was meticulously landscaped with spectacular mini gardens within the larger gardens, walk ways, and maintained focal features. And that was just what she had seen on the walk up the drive and from the front porch! The property was huge. She supposed they could have a gardener. They were being rather generous with their currency in the ad she'd answered. Everything about the outside of the house was almost creepily well maintained. Every detail looked fresh and clean to near sparkling. There wasn't a chip or crack to be seen, something that should be impossible this far into the woods, even for an able bodied person. Not even a round the clock professional crew of any sort could keep up with something like that.

To one side of the porch was a neat row of bikes, one being rather small, and an assortment of children's outside toys in a box. Maybe they had grandchildren? 

The place also gave off a creepy energy, not bad, not evil, not in any way malicious or foreboding, just unfamiliar and uncomfortable. Something with very old magic lived here and a lot of it. Maybe multiple somethings. Krisaga was admittedly not very good at reading energies beyond the basics of “ill-will vs good-intentioned” yet, but there were definitely multiple types of energy bouncing around. It was chaotic and shouldn't be able to co-exist together. It was a little dizzying. Something strange that should not be fucked around with lived here.

She really should have left. 

She really needed those Wizard Tokens. 

Krisaga knocked. 

It didn't take long for the door to open and she found herself staring the other person straight in the chest. It was definitely not the little old lady she was expecting. She looked up and up until she found his face. There was no way he was as tall as he seemed. 

She should be forgiven for staring. Krisaga hadn't seen anyone quite like him before, and that was saying something given that she'd lived in Subeta her entire life. He was tall and thin, but somehow not frail looking. His hair was wild and grey, but he seemed young; an adult, but just barely. His eyes were off. They looked exhausted, but electrified and wide awake at the same time. They were a similar shade of grey as his hair. Well, one was. The other had gone completely white. She had a feeling he could still see out of it though. He was dressed in thick layers of clothes in clashing patterns, far too warmly for the weather of the late spring day. The chilly breeze off the lake didn't make it this far. Strangely for someone so bundled, he wasn't wearing shoes or socks, not even slippers. 

“Hello?” he finally asked. He was hunched over a bit with a nervous smile. Krisaga guessed it was an attempt to seem non-threatening. It didn't work. 

Startled, Krisaga finally spoke, “Oh, I answered your ad. I guess it was your ad. The woman said to come here... I'm Krisaga.” She thrust her hand out to initiate a handshake. 

The man in the doorway relaxed. “Right. Lori said you were coming. I'm Snappy.” He started to reach out to take her hand and then stopped. Snappy moved out of the doorway. “Come in.”

Krisaga thought that was a little strange and who the hell was named Snappy? Nothing else had been particularly normal so far, why would meeting the owner any different?

For as meticulous as the outside of the house was, the inside was not. It wasn't dirty, just well lived in. Everything seemed to invite interaction and screamed comfort. Nothing was delicate or fragile. Nothing seemed off limits. The furnishings were plush, with added throws and pillows, asking to be sat on. Books were everywhere in neat stacks. Games were sitting around, ready to be played with. Toys were everywhere. Not strewn about in disarray, but displayed on low shelves and tables like décor. Yet, it was clear these were toys that were regularly played with. It was a very neat kind of messy, organized chaos. 

“Uh, sorry about the mess,” Snappy rubbed the back of his neck and grinned sheepishly. “I haven't had time to vacuum. Hope you're not allergic to... anything.”

“It's really not a mess.” Krisaga wasn't sure why she was trying to put her host at ease; he was the one with the terrifying energy. “Nope, no allergies. Do you have a lot of pets, then?” She wanted to facepalm the second she asked the question. True, it was common to have a lot of pets on Subeta, but given the variety of humanoid creatures of Subeta, he could just as easily have a furry roommate or something. 

“Kinda,” he laughed. “The dungeon's this way.” Snappy lead the way. 

At least she hadn't offended him, she hoped. There had been no explicit indication that the dungeon was where they were going to be working and not, well, a dungeon. 

The staircase was stone and in need of handrails. It spiraled down deeper than Krisaga had expected. The stones were solid, but uneven. Snappy apologized and helped her down. She tuned out his babbling about the repairs he was going to start once it was a bit warmer out, in favor of paying close attention to where she was putting her feet. How he was doing this without shoes, she had no idea. 

At first glance, the “dungeon” looked like a tornado had zipped through it. It was a much larger space than Krisaga had been expecting, probably larger than the floor plan of the entire ground floor of the house above, and it had several doors leading off of it. 

Snappy gestured for her to look around. He stood against the wall, watching her, no longer trying to look small or friendly for her benefit. He studied her. There wasn't anything malevolent about it, but she was wary of it just the same. She was being judged, for what she didn't know. It creeped her out, but not enough to leave. 

She was getting dizzy again. He had everything; nature magic, scientific experimentations, alchemy, smithing, battling scroll materials, crystals from Atebus, and an entire shop's worth of random magical ingredients. He had materials of the sea witch Merana, the goddess Shinwa, the Gourd Witch, the Mage, and every other magical system on Subeta and a few from abroad. How could he work like this? And who could work them all?

Krisaga didn't touch anything, just moved around the room carefully. You could never be too cautious around magical objects. A clear order emerged, just like upstairs. There were stations around the room. In the center, there was what appeared to be the main work table. On it, was a large book he'd been taking notes in. It snapped shut when she walked too close to it. All the other tools on it had been neatly pushed to the edges. She thought maybe he'd cleared away whatever he'd been working on before her arrival. 

There was the obligatory cauldron to one side of the room. It was over an inset fire pit. Curious and noticing the fire was out, she poked her head in to see if it indeed had a chimney or if the smoke was carried out by some other means when it jumped out at her. 

What it was exactly took Krisaga a moment to figure out. It stared at her with small eyes and a curious expression. The way its pointy ears moved, she thought for a moment that she was looking at a very fat, compact cat, but then she noticed the tiny horns on top its head, the massive front paws, and minuscule hind legs. “You have a Fiend?” 

“I have several,” Snappy answered back non-nonchalantly, not moving from where he was leaning against the wall. 

Krisaga looked back and noticed she was surrounded by at least five of them in different colors, staring at her. “And you let them just run around free?” Sure, Fiends were adorable, but they were tricksters and not normally kept as pets. On the rare occasion they were, they were locked up. 

Snappy shrugged. “Are they going to be a problem?”

“Oh, no. I was just surprised.” Krisaga was pretty sure they were going to be a problem, but she needed those Wizard Tokens. 

She went back to looking around the room, at first the Fiends followed her, but they suddenly disbursed. She'd have sworn that she saw Snappy make some sort of hand gesture right before hand, but she couldn't be sure. Krisaga added, “and apparently he controls Fiends” to her mental list of weird. 

One wall had a bookshelf that held a rather impressive library. Near the bookcase was a cabinet of magical ingredients. Impressively, they were arranged both by use and alphabetically. The shelving unit on the other side of the bookshelf, storing potions and elixirs, was arranged much the same way. Snappy had taken the time to put bumpers around the front of the shelves to keep them from falling off. 

Not that there was only the one bookshelf. It was just the only one with books. They lined most of the room. There was an assortment of items stored in every available space. 

There was a table that was strictly devoted to alchemy on the wall opposite the library bookshelf. Furthest away from everything was a table with a rather disturbing looking chemistry set up. The smithing set up was next to the fire pit. To complete the room, there was a display shelf of voodoo dolls. 

“So what am I doing exactly?” she finally asked, after completing her survey of the room.

Snappy finally moved off the wall. “Basically, I have too much stuff. Someone needs to go through it and I have the kids most of the time. According to Lori's vetting process, you're more than qualified to figure out what I have too much of or what I don't need.”

Something finally clicked for Krigasa. “Wait, Lori?”

“The woman you talked to on the phone.” Snappy drew the last part out like he was talking to someone slightly slow. 

“With the Arctic Frost number?”

“Yes.”

“I was vetted by the Ice Witch?!” Krigasa hadn't meant to screech that out loud, but the woman's reputation was terrifying.

“First of all, she doesn't like it when you call her that. Two, she isn't an ice witch. She lives in the Arctic Frost to combat the heat given off by eighty plus dragons...” Snappy's tone was more warning than scolding. 

“Eighty dragons?” Really, Krigasa had planned on being more professional than this, but who had eighty dragons?

“Give or take a couple dozen.”

“And she's a friend of yours?”

“Kinda. So basically, the job is you figure out what needs to go because if someone doesn't, I will end up becoming a hoarder. You need to go through everything in this room and,” Snappy moved to the farthest door and opened it so that Krisaga could see inside. “This room.” 

The new room was full of weaponry and other items from the Battle Coliseum. “She said you knew battle items too.” Snappy seemed a little unsure. 

“Yeah, of course!” Krisaga might have exaggerated her knowledge a little there, but she could look things up while she worked. 

Snappy tilted his head looking at her intently. “Okay then. Anyway, anything you find that needs to go, can go in here for now.” Snappy opened a door near the bookcase to show an empty storage room. “Just don't go in here or here okay?” he said pointing to the other two doors. 

She tried not to react to how ominous that sounded, but Krisaga must have given something away because Snappy started stammering immediately. “I didn't... that shouldn't... you aren't going to like stumble upon an evil plot or explode or something. Look.” 

Snappy opened the first door. It was piled with shiny objects and gold. It was a dragon horde. 

“Oh, you have pet dragon. I would never disturb a dragon horde.” She relaxed. Dragons were a common pet in Subeta, not eighty of them mind you, but one, one was normal.

“Technically, he's my familiar not a pet, but yeah, he'd really appreciate it.”

Krisaga nodded along until she realized he said “familiar.” Who the hell has a dragon for a familiar?

Snappy opened the other door. “These guys just aren't used to having strangers around, so it might be best to just not go in there while you're working in here.”

Krisaga stared in amazement. It was... well, she didn't know what it was exactly, but her first thoughts were “magical zoo.” She'd never seen such a vast assortment of magical creatures together in one spot. He'd taken the time to build them all perfect little environments of the right size... and they were content. She'd never seen a perfectly content magical creature being held as someone's pet before.

“Exercising them can get a bit tricky sometimes, but we manage. We're building them outside habitats, but it's taking a while.”

She jumped at that, not realizing he'd gotten so close. 

Snappy gently guided her out of the doorway, closed the door, and locked it. “So... are you good to start?”

“Sure,” she squeaked. 

“Good!” Snappy clapped his hands together. “I'll be down with snacks in a while. The kids should be home soon and, uh, good luck.” He started to leave, but then turned around. “Oh, and if you hurt anything or try to take anything, I'll know.”

Krisaga could have sworn that, just for a moment, his eyes went black, sharp teeth overcrowded his mouth, and small curved horns sprouted out of his temples. What she did know for absolutely certain, was that something cold had just reached out and touched her soul. She nodded her head. 

“Great!” Snappy was back to his cheerful, goofy self and headed back towards the stairs. 

Kirsaga held her breath until she heard the upstairs door close. The Fiends were watching her from the cauldron. “Did Snappy tell you to stay out of my way?”

They nodded their heads collectively. 

“Good.” She walked into the room of weapons and got to sorting. She figured she could get that room out of the way first then the rest of it would be easy and she needed those Wizard Tokens.

**Author's Note:**

> This could be read as original fiction and no knowledge of the game (Subeta) is needed prior to reading. Written for the 2019 Spring Cleaning challenge at Story_works and "The High Priestess card" prompt at the Tarot Bingo Fest at Allbingo.


End file.
